Marine Cadastre in Europe - ELRA · Marine Cadastre in Europe 7 A considerable portion of the conducted research on Marine Cadastre considered the similarities and differences between

Commissioned by:

Marine

Cadastre

in Europe a preliminary study

Brief edition

January 2017

Disclaimer

The study has been commissioned by the 5 Common Vision Partners1 (PCC, EULIS, ELRA, CLGE,

Eurogeographics) and authored by the members of a project team with experts engaged from the

Common Vision Partners or volunteered to participate during the course of the project.

The study is a property of the 5 Common Vision Partners and may not be reproduced, distributed or

used by any means, or in any form, without the 5 Common Vision Partners prior permission.

1 Hereinafter are referring as “Common Vision Partners” due to the Common Vision Agreement, signed in 2012 in

Cyprus and renewed in Lithuania in 2014, to support all European countries to achieve full coverage and high – quality,

transparent and accessible data on land.

About the sponsors

CLGE is the leading organization representing the Surveying Profession in

Europe.

ELRA is an International Association without lucrative purposes representing

Land Registrars in Europe.

EULIS is a European Economic Interest Group (EEIG), responsible for the

EULIS-portal and governed by members, providers of authoritative land and

property information in its own country or region.

EuroGeographics is a European non – profit Association of the European

cadastre, land registry and national mapping authorities.

PCC is an organization that joins together the Cadastral institutions of the EU

countries.

Table of contents

Foreword 5

Study objective 6

Introduction 7

1. The international context 10

2. EU’s policy and regulatory framework 16

3. The State of Play 23

4. Main conclusions and way forward 27

Epilogue: Rationale and contours of Marine Cadastre 31

Annex 35

Appendices 36

“The objective of this

preliminary study is to raise

awareness about the topic of

the Marine Cadastre and to

trigger the discussion about its

potential benefits in Europe’s

Blue Economy.”

Foreword

Dear Reader,

Throughout human history considerable efforts and resources have been directed at effectively managing

land whereas the marine environment has been given a lower priority. However over 70 percent of the

planet's surface is covered by water, the majority of which is in the world's seas and oceans. It’s also known

that oceans, seas and marine resources support human well-being by contributing to poverty eradication,

food security, the creation of sustainable livelihoods and jobs, human health and protection from natural

disasters. Half of the world's population lives within 60 km of the sea and over 3 billion people depend on

marine and coastal resources for their livelihoods while three-quarters of all large cities are located on the

coast. At least 90% of the volume of global trade is seaborne and approximately 50% of all international

tourists travel to coastal areas. The ocean is valued at more than US$24 trillion while the annual “gross

marine product” totals at least US$2.5 trillion, which when ranked among national GDPs makes the ocean the world’s seventh largest economy (WWF, 2015).

On the other hand, oceans and seas are also a valuable asset for the European Union (EU). Europe is a

peninsula with 70 000 km of coastline, surrounded by many islands, by four2 seas and two oceans3. This

geographical feature means that over two thirds of the EU’s borders are coastal4 (EC,2006) while the EU

Member States exercise collectively jurisdiction over the largest exclusive economic zone in the world

comprising of more than 20 million km2. The impact of the maritime sector on the EU’s economy is vital as

well: the EU’s maritime economy alone employs more than 3.6 million people, creates a gross added value

of just under €500 billion per year, with a high potential for further growth. Europe is and will be increasingly

dependent on oceans for the provision of fish protein, minerals and renewable energy. The EU’s single

market is the largest market for fisheries products in the world. 90% of the EU’s external trade and 40% of internal trade is carried on sea routes.

The five leading European organizations dealing with Cadastre, Land Registry, Mapping and Surveying issues

(CLGE, ELRA, EULIS, Eurogeographics, PCC) acknowledge the great potential of the Blue Economy in Europe

as well as the impact of efficient planning and a better allocation of human activities in the sea and their

interrelation to a sound registry system as a basis for legal certainty. These organizations decided in June

2014 in Athens, Greece to join forces to collectively better understand the Marine Cadastre concept and its

role. In this regard, a project team consisting of experts either affiliated with the 5 Common Vision Partners

or with universities and institutes in EU Member States, was founded to carry out a preliminary study, with

an orientating character, aiming at reviewing the status of the Marine Cadastre across the European Union.

We hope you will find this report, within the context of its orienting character, informative and useful for the initiation of the discussion in the European continent about the potential benefits of the Marine Cadastre in

boosting the EU’s Blue Economy and we look forward to your feedback.

On behalf of the expert team5

Rik Wouters Evangelia Balla

Project Team Coordinator Lead Author-Editor of the Brief Edition

2 the Mediterranean, the Baltic, the North Sea, and the Black Sea

3 Atlantic and Artic

4 23 out of 28 EU countries have a coastline whereas the EU's coastline is 7 times as long as the US' and 4 times as long

as Russia's 5 See Annex for all the experts in the team

Study objective and approach

Marine Cadastre in Europe

5

Objective

The objective of this preliminary study is to raise awareness about the topic of the Marine Cadastre and to

trigger the discussion about its potential benefits for Europe’s Blue Economy.

Approach

In order to meet the objective of raising awareness and stressing the need for action on investigating further

the potential benefits of the Marine Cadastre in the Blue Economy, the project was based on primary and

secondary research criteria and encompassed three major tasks. The first task included the design and

dissemination of a questionnaire through communication channels of the 5 Common Vision partners to

national experts. The second task included the documentation of the current legislative and policy

framework of the European Union as well as of related EU’s initiatives and tools to support maritime

policies. The third task encompassed the analysis and synthesis of relevant research, data and information

on the topic of the Marine Cadastre worldwide.

Desk-based research

In order to analyze the international and European context as well as to understand the conceptual

boundaries and content of the Marine Cadastre, we performed a desk-based research. A complete reference

list of sources is included at the end of this report. We reviewed various literature sources such as related

academic articles, the FIG publication No 36 for Administering Marine Spaces, the UNCLOS Convention and

multiple European Policy papers, Regulations, Recommendations and Directives related to the maritime

domain.

Limitations

As with Land Cadastre, the development of a Marine Cadastre is inevitably a complex and challenging endeavor, which requires solid investigations and thorough planning. However, it was out of the scope of

this study to provide definite recommendations and conclusions on the design and development of a Marine

Cadastre or provide evidence on direct links between Marine Cadastre and the Blue Economy and solid

documentation on its’ economic effects. This kind of research requires inevitably a different methodological

approach as well as organization and implementation of such a project. Instead the current study focused on

the identification of the field area in Europe, reaching high level conclusions from the analysis of the current

state and proposing initiatives that could provide further insights at a European and national level.

Introduction

Marine Cadastre: Definition and Scope


6

The concept of a “Marine Cadastre” and the need to “build a marine regulatory system and a cadastre that

underpins offshore rights and responsibilities and sensibly matches its onshore counterpart” (Robertson et al.,

1999) became apparent in in late nineties’ when awareness of the importance of marine natural resources

and the recognition of the actual and potential value of a marine environment as an economic resource, led

to increased competition for its’ management. Important drivers are considered the enforcement of the

United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) in 1994, the rise of the environmental

movement after the Rio Summit in 1992 and the continuous development of Spatial Data Infrastructures (Balla, 2015).

In the above context, the concept of a Marine Cadastre has attracted interest from several researchers from

the geomatics community, as a means to improving the administration of marine and coastal spaces through

decision support systems, and lead to increased research efforts towards the development of marine

cadastre in various jurisdictions (Sutherland M., 2011).

Following the rise of several research initiatives and pilot projects on the topic of Marine Cadastre, several

definitions have been given in the attempt to conceptualize its notion and its content. In this regard, and

according to one of several definitions that have been given to the topic. The Marine Cadastre is “a system

to enable the boundaries of maritime rights and interests to be recorded, spatially managed and physically

defined in relationship to the boundaries of other neighboring or underlying rights and interests.” (Robertson, 1999).

A second important term, along with the notion that a Marine Cadastre as with Land Cadastre, is the idea of

the marine or sea cadastre parcel which is defined as (De Latte, 2016):

• The volumetric reality of every distinct marine zone (sea surface & water column & seabed or soil &

subsoil) with: a) the rights and charges under UNCLOS b) the patrimonial rights which include rights in

rem and

• A fourth dimension, meaning the temporary nature of many particular rights (fixed terms licenses,

concessions and leases for mining, production of energy, aquaculture, fishing, etc.).

Figure 1: the concept of the Marine Cadastre

Source: http://coinatlantic.ca/index.php/indicators-

and-icom/marine-spatial-planning

Introduction

Marine Cadastre and Land Cadastre: Is there an analogy?


7

A considerable portion of the conducted research on Marine Cadastre considered the similarities and

differences between the Marine Cadastre and its counterpart on land. Most of them converge on the fact

that the marine environment has unique features that does not apply in the case of the terrestrial

environment and therefore to the Land Registry and Cadastre (Binns et.al, 2004, Collier et. al 2003, Widodo

M., 2003) though many of the cadastral components such as adjudication, survey, owner rights have a

parallel condition in the ocean (Neely, 1998).

Specifically, as regards the similarities, related research (Tamtomo, 2004), argues that as in the land cadastre, the marine cadastre has also been built based on three pillars or benchmarks, as follows:

a) the legal pillar (3R: rights, restrictions, and responsibilities); As a part of the legal system (legal

cadastre), the marine cadastre provides legal certainty to sea-space development planning, sea parcel

rights and leases, and public access to and from the seas.

b) the technical pillar (surveying, mapping, and spatial infrastructure). As regards the technical pillar, a

marine cadastre is designed as a tool and mechanism for providing data and information as a resource

for planning and the decision making process, and as legal evidence of a certain sea and marine rights

and lease.

c) the institutional pillar (formal and informal institutions and human resources). The marine cadastre, as

part of a public administration system, acts as a public service provider and sea-conflicts resolution.

The following differences between the Marine and the Land Cadastre are the most popular ones according

to related academic papers (Collier et.al, 2001, Binns et.al. 2004, FIG, 2006):

� There are virtually no rights of full ownership or exclusive use in marine space

� Ordinary land demarcation techniques cannot apply in the marine environment: Marine boundaries are

delimited, not demarcated, and generally there is no physical evidence of “offshore” boundary.

� In the marine environment is common the existence of multiple (overlapping) rights in a single area

� The marine environment is three dimensional – classical 2D simplifications will not suffice.

� Rights can vary with time, adding a fourth dimension to the spatial data.

� The baseline to which many maritime boundaries are related is ambulatory.

The above issues are influencing inevitably the design and development of a Marine Cadastre and are

creating new challenges for the involved professionals and related stakeholders. Furthermore, it has been

stressed that as with land administration systems which are strongly related to national laws and specific

socioeconomic environments and institutional arrangements, it is impossible to adopt a marine cadastre

model from one jurisdiction and apply it to another jurisdiction since the concept of a Marine Cadastre is

unique for a specific jurisdiction regarding to its characteristics, stakeholders and legal institutional aspects

(Collier et.al, 2001).

Introduction

Marine Spatial Data Infrastructure (MSDI)


8

Closely related to the concept of the Marine Cadastre, is the notion of the Marine Spatial Data

Infrastructure (MSDI). According to the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO, 2011), “Marine

Spatial Data Infrastructure (MSDI) is the component of an SDI that encompasses marine geographic and

business information in its widest sense. This would typically include seabed topography, geology, marine

infrastructure, resources utilisation, administrative and legal boundaries, areas of conservation, marine

habitats and oceanography” (IHO, 2011). MSDI places emphasis on the unlocking of hydrographic and all the

other marine geospatial information”.

In fact, the Marine Cadastre is considered as a base layer of a MSDI with fundamental information relating

to maritime boundaries and associated rights and responsibilities, regularly updated and maintained (FIG,

2006). The role of the Marine Cadastre as a data layer in a marine SDI has been addressed in the

international workshop on Administering the Marine Environment held in Malaysia in 2004. The workshop

recommended, in an analogy to a “Land Administration System”, to adopt the term “Marine Administration

System” for the “administration of rights, restrictions and responsibilities in the marine environment with the

spatial dimension facilitated by the Marine SDI. The workshop further recommended that “a Marine

Cadastre is defined as a management tool which spatially describes, visualizes and realizes formally and

informally defined boundaries and associated rights, restrictions and responsibilities in the marine

environment as a data layer in a marine SDI, allowing them to be more effectively identified, administered

and accessed (PCGIAP-WG3 2004)”. In order to avoid management gaps in the coastal zone, the workshop

promoted the idea of a seamless SDI that includes data from land, coast and marine environments to enable

the access and sharing of data between those environments to be improved.

As with Spatial Data Infrastructures, the field of the MSDI is very wide with a lot of related technological

developments and applications. However compared to SDIs, the Marine SDI has not yet taken a stance nor

the terrestrial SDI, because the subject of MSDI is still new (Tares M., 2013). Nevertheless, it has been argued

further that even though the number of MSDI themes is currently relatively small in number, it’s likely to

increase as understanding and new activities evolve in the marine environment (Tares, M. 2013).

Figure 2: The spatial dimension in the

marine environment (FIG, 2006)

Figure 3: Marine Spatial Data infrastructure

themes (Fowler et al., 2011)

1

The

International

Context

1.The international context

The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea


10

As being said, the enforcement of the UNCLOS has inevitably influenced the evolution of the concept of the

Marine Cadastre. It has been argued (Schlagintweit G.) that 25 among the 330 articles of the Convention are

related to geomatics, whereas the provisions of the Convention for the subdivision of the oceans on

Territorial Seas, Exclusive Economic Zones and Continental Shelves, each with its corresponding rights and

responsibilities, has created a complex multidimensional mosaic of potential private and public interests

(Ng’ang’a et al., 2002).

The UNCLOS convention which was signed at Montego Bay (Jamaica) in1982 and came into effect on 1994

defines the rights and responsibilities of nations with respect to their use of the world's oceans and seas,

establishing guidelines for businesses, the environment, and the management of marine natural resources.

The Convention introduced a number of provisions, among them the setting of marine areas and their

respective limits, navigation, archipelagic status and transit regimes, exclusive economic zones (EEZs),

continental shelf jurisdiction, deep seabed mining, the exploitation regime, protection of the marine

environment, scientific research, and settlement of disputes.

Figure 4. Maritime zones and rights under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea

(UNCLOS). (Source, Geoscience, Australia)

According to UNCLOS, the following distinct marine areas or zones, each with its own legal status and rights (assigned to the coastal state, other states and other stakeholders involved) and restrictions, are being

measured from a carefully defined baseline:

� territorial sea : is the marine area, up to a limit not exceeding 12 nautical miles, measured from baselines

determined in accordance with the Convention which encompasses air space & sea surface & water

column superjacent to the seabed & soil or seabed & subsoil

� contiguous zone – encompasses the sea surface & water column & soil & subsoil – breadth of 12 nautical

miles measured from the outer limit of the territorial sea

� exclusive economic zone (EEZ) – encompasses the sea surface & water column & soil & subsoil – breadth

of 200 nautical miles measured from the outer limit of the territorial sea

1. The international context

The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea


11

� continental shelf – encompasses only the seabed and its subsoil – breadth of 200 nautical miles

(maximum of 350 miles) measured from the outer limit of the territorial seabed

� High Seas – consists only of the sea surface and the water column subjacent to the surface – beyond the

EEZ – beyond any national jurisdiction

� the Area encompassing only the seabed and its subsoil under the High Seas – beyond the outer limit of

the continental shelf – beyond any national jurisdiction.

Considering that a Marine Cadastre is referring to areas under national jurisdiction, only the Territorial Sea

and EEZ are relevant.

1.The international context

Marine Cadastre initiatives in the world


12

Australia is one of the countries where the surveying and geomatics community has demonstrated an

increased interest for the issue of Marine Cadastre quite early. Early in 2000 a project regarding the

delimitation of maritime zones (AMBIS6) was implemented while a few years later an information system

known as Australian Marine Spatial Information System (AMSIS)7 was developed. The latter is a web based

interactive mapping and decision support system that improves access to integrated government and non-

government information in the Australian Marine Jurisdiction and provides multipurpose cadastral

information, among them about legal interests. AMSIS contains 80 layers of information displayed in themes

on Maritime Boundaries, Petroleum, Fisheries, Regulatory, Environment, Native Title and Offshore Minerals.

The data has been sourced from Geoscience Australia, other Australian government agencies and some

industry sources.

The Marine Cadastre in the United States was created to comply with the Energy Policy Act of 2005 which

provided for the development of an Outer Continental Shelf mapping initiative to assist in decision making

related to the sitting of renewable energy facilities in the continental shelf. The Marine Boundary Working

Group of the US Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) developed an implementation plan called the

“multipurpose marine cadastre”. That was a project which started in 2001 with 10 agencies involved and the

first version released in 2010 (FGDC, 2010). Even though the Marine Cadastre initiative was designed initially

to support renewable energy siting on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf, is also being used for other ocean-

related efforts. The MarineCadastre.gov portal is now an integrated marine information system with 270

datasets and provides data, tools, and support not only to the offshore renewable energy but to marine

planning communities as well. Another portal i.e. Data.gov/ocean is the national marine planning

information system called for in the National Ocean Policy which is complementary to the Marine Cadastre.

The latter is providing direct access to data for renewable energy and marine planning whereas the first

provides access to metadata for ocean, coastal, and Great Lakes data from many federal agencies.

Figures 5,6: Samples of the Marine Information portals in Australia and U.S.A

6 Australian Maritime Boundaries Information System

7 Australia’s Marine Spatial Information System




13

The Marine Cadastre in Israel is a natural continuation of the Land Cadastre and it follows the same

principles and methods of implementation. Initially they applied it to the territorial waters and at a second

phase they plan to expand it to the Exclusive Economic Zone. The Survey of Israel and the Land Registry have

already finished the process of settling 16 marine cadastral blocks and an additional 13 blocks awaited final

approval. The process of implementation was smooth, fast, and at a low cost (Srebro, 2015).

Figures 7, 8: The maritime zones of Israel and the suggested marine cadastre blocks of Israel (Srebro, 2015)

Canada has developed a Marine Spatial Data Infrastructure (MSDI) which comprises one important

component of the Canadian Geospatial Infrastructure known as “Geoconnections”. Another initiative inside

CGDI is the Coastal and Ocean Information Network for Atlantic Canada (COINAtlantic), which has

implemented a coastal and ocean information network for the western North Atlantic. The initiative aims at

the provision of open access to spatial data to support integrated coastal and ocean management (ICOM) by

adopting all standards of and complying with the architecture of the CGDI (Rüh C., Bill R., 2012a). In 2008

the COINAtlantic, developed a search utility that locates marine and coastal datasets and offers the user the

option to add and display found datasets in a graphic map interface. A sub-component of the COINAtlantic

initiative was a prototype marine cadastre, using St. Margaret’s Bay, Nova Scotia, as the case study area

(Sutherland M., 2011). However Canada is still in progress with a Marine and Coastal Rights Registry (MC) as

a component of an Integrated Marine and Coastal Information System despite that between 2001 and 2008

there has been a major research interest in the marine cadastre. In addition the extension of the CGDI to the

Artic with the Canadian Arctic SDI initiative is including the development of a marine cadastre in the Artic

area.




14

Related initiatives have been taken in Indonesia (Abdulharis et.al, 2008, Tamtomo, 2004, Widodo, 2002) and

in Malaysia (Abdullah, 2014). In particular these initiatives are following a key resolution that has been

adopted in the framework of the international workshop in Malaysia in 2004 from the Committee of

Cadastre in Asia and Pacific region. According to this resolution, all countries in the Asia and Pacific region

with an extensive marine jurisdiction and administrative responsibility are encouraged to include a marine

dimension in their NSDI as part of their obligation to meeting their responsibilities under the United Nations

Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) (FIG, 2006).

Resume

From the macroscopic examination of the above case studies we could deduce the conclusion that in most of

them we observe a descriptive system focusing on physical, biological and economical aspects of the marine

environment. Only in Israel and Canada we see an (first) attempt to register facts that could be seen as

elements of a marine cadaster.

2

EU’s policy and

regulatory

framework

2. EU’s policy and regulatory framework

The EU reaffirms its maritime identity: the path from Integrated

Maritime Policy to Blue Growth


16

On April 1st 1998 the European Union acceded to the UNCLOS, a fact which has inevitably amplified its

interest in maritime governance as well as in the administration of marine spaces under its jurisdiction. In

2005 the European Commission included in its strategic objectives for the next five years (2005-2009), the

need for an all-embracing maritime policy (EC, 2005). The concept of an Integrated Maritime Policy (IMP) of

the European Union became officially apparent in the European policy in 2006 with the Green Paper

“Towards a future Maritime Policy for the Union: A European Vision for the oceans and seas” (EC, 2006). It

was the first time that the land based mentality of EU Policies was reversed symbolizing that Europe is and

has always been above all a maritime nation (EESC, 2007). The Green Paper examined factors influencing

EU’s competitiveness: the state of the marine environment, scientific knowledge in all areas relating to the

oceans, innovation and the expertise of the workforce and inaugurated a consultation process which lasted

one year. Building on this valuable input and the conclusions of the consultation (EC, 2007a), the European

Commission presented on 10 October 2007, its vision for an Integrated Maritime Policy for the European

Union, also known as the Blue Book (EC, 2007b).

The Integrated Maritime Policy aspires to bring a holistic approach for the coordination of the EU sea-related

policies which have been developed separately without taking into account the broader links among them.

The Blue Book (or Blue Paper) laid the foundation for the governance framework and cross-sector tools

necessary for an EU Integrated Maritime Policy. As regards the tools for integrated policy-making, the Blue

Book distinguished three horizontal planning tools of major importance that cut across sea-related sector

policies and support joined up policy making:

� maritime surveillance which is critical for the safe and secure use of marine space;

� maritime spatial planning which is a key planning tool for sustainable decision-making;

� and a comprehensive and accessible source of data and information.

The Blue Book highlighted the inefficiency of existing planning frameworks that address the emerging

challenges from the growing competing uses of the sea8. The Commission proposed to set up a maritime

spatial planning, as a fundamental tool for the sustainable development of marine areas and coastal regions,

and for stronger use of Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM), following the 2002 EU’s

Recommendation9.

Moreover, the Commission recognized that the establishment of an appropriate marine data and

information infrastructure, as a basis for strategic decision making on maritime policy, is of utmost

importance, given the vast majority of data collected and stored all over Europe for a wide variety of

purposes. This data should be compiled in a comprehensive and compatible system, and made accessible as

8 i.e. maritime transport, fishing, aquaculture, leisure activities, off-shore energy production and other forms of sea bed exploitation

9 2002/413/EC


The EU reaffirms its maritime identity: the path from Integrated

Maritime Policy to Blue Growth


17

a tool for better governance, expansion of value-added services and sustainable maritime development.

Having awareness of such a significant undertaking that would need to be developed over a period of years,

according to a clear and coherent plan, the Commission committed to proceed, in 2008, towards a European

Marine Observation and Data Network (EMODNet) and further to promote the multi-dimensional mapping

of Member States’ waters, in order to improve access to high quality data.

The notion of the Blue Growth appeared in 2012 and is considered as the extension or the 2nd phase of the

IMP so as to contribute to the achievement of Europe’s 2020 strategy goals for smart, sustainable and

inclusive growth (EC, 2012b). The EU’s blue economy represents roughly 5, 4 million jobs and generates a

gross added value of almost a €500billion per year whereas further growth is possible in a number of areas.

The sectors of the EU’s Blue Economy identified with high potential for growth are the following: 1) Blue

energy, 2) Aquaculture, 3) Maritime, coastal and cruise tourism 4) Marine mineral resources and 5) Blue

biotechnology

Blue Growth is the long term strategy to support sustainable growth in the marine and maritime sectors as a

whole having regard that seas and oceans are drivers for the European economy and have great potential for

innovation and growth. It is the maritime contribution to achieving the goals of the Europe 2020 strategy for

smart, sustainable and inclusive growth.

Among the initiatives designed to reinforce the efforts of Member States for a successful blue economy, the

Blue Growth policy indicated the maritime spatial planning, the “Marine Knowledge” initiative, and the

Common Information Sharing Environment for the surveillance of the EU maritime domain.

These initiatives, which have been developed under the EU’s Integrated Maritime Policy and constitute

hereinafter the essential components of the Blue Growth strategy, will provide knowledge, legal certainty

and security in the blue economy and underpin and reinforce other existing instruments at a sea-basin and

EU scale.


EU’s initiatives to support Blue Growth


18

Maritime Spatial Planning10

and Integrated Coastal Zone Management

Coastal areas11 play a vital role in the European economy while they concentrate on a significant part of the

EU’s population, the majority of the main urban centers, a large variety of human activities (e.g. tourism,

recreation, holiday housing, fisheries and aquaculture) and most transport and communication infrastructure

facilities. The intensive pressures resulting from the concentration of the abovementioned activities and

infrastructures often create threats for coastal ecosystems and natural resources while they also generate

conflicts of incompatible uses in the same or adjacent coastal areas.

In this regard, the EU has promoted variously the concept of Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM)

to be implemented by Member States as a tool for the integrated management of all policy processes

affecting the coastal zone, and to further address land-sea interactions of coastal activities in a coordinated

way with a view to ensuring the sustainable development of coastal and marine areas. In 2002 the European

Commission issued a Recommendation (2002/413/EC) which laid down specific principles that the Member

States should follow to ensure sound coastal zone management. In 2010 the European Union (Decision

2010/631/EU) ratified the Protocol on Integrated Coastal Zone Management in the Mediterranean to the

Barcelona Convention (the ICZM Protocol). The Protocol, which entered into force in 2011 as a mixed

agreement, covers issues that fall within both EU competence and the national competence of the Member

States. The ICZM is predicted also diversely in other Regional Sea Conventions such as the Helsinki

Convention for the Baltic Sea Region (HELCOM) or the Bucharest Convention for the Black Sea.

The Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) aims to address the increasing competition between sectoral maritime

interests (e.g. shipping and maritime transport, offshore energy, ports development, fisheries and

aquaculture) and environmental concerns, providing a framework for arbitrating between competing human

activities and managing their impact on the marine environment and thus enhancing decision making.

Therefore, the use of MSP would enhance the competitiveness of the EU’s maritime economy, promoting

growth and jobs in line with the Lisbon agenda and would provide a basis for simplified permit systems and

reduce costs of regulatory and administrative procedures. It would also provide a transparent and reliable

planning framework (EC, 2008).

Maritime Spatial Planning is about planning when and where human activities take place at sea – to ensure

these are as efficient and sustainable as possible.

A proposal for a Directive13 to establish a framework for MSP and ICZM was circulated on March 2013 (EC,

2013). However the text of the Directive (2014/89/EU) adopted by the European Parliament in April 2014

contained only the MSP component, along with a general stipulation which states that maritime spatial

10

In this section only the most related, i.e. Marine Knowledge and Maritime Spatial Planning, with the concept of the

Marine Cadastre, EU’s initiatives are being presented. 11

The estimated length of the EU’s coastline is almost 70,000 km including the four French overseas departments

(French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Réunion) which are an integral part of the European Union, but excluding the

French overseas collectivities and territories, which are not part of the European Union.




19

planning “should take into account land-sea interactions.” The inclusion of the Integrated Coastal Zone

Management in the relevant Directive 2014/89/EC even though initially perceived, along with Maritime

Spatial Planning as a cornerstone of Blue Growth and Integrated Maritime Policy has been hindered due to

competency issues among EU and Member States.

According to the relevant Directive (Article 3) ‘maritime spatial planning’ means a process by which the

relevant Member State’s authorities analyse and organise human activities in marine areas to achieve

ecological, economic and social objectives. The maritime spatial plans shall identify the spatial and temporal

distribution of relevant existing and future activities and uses in the Member States marine waters such as

aquaculture and fishing areas, installations and infrastructures for the exploration, exploitation and

extraction of oil, gas and other energy resources, minerals and aggregates, maritime transport routes and

traffic flows, military training areas, submarine cable and pipeline routes, underwater cultural heritage etc.

(Article 8).

With a view to ensuring that maritime spatial plans are based on reliable data and to avoid additional

administrative burdens, the Member States are recommended to make use of the best available data and

information by encouraging the relevant stakeholders to share information and by making use of existing

instruments and tools for data collection, such as those developed in the context of the Marine Knowledge

2020 initiative and the Inspire Directive (2007/2/EC) (Preamble, point (24), Directive 2014/89/EU ).

According to the provisions of the new Directive, the Member States must transpose the new rules into their

national laws by 18 September 2016, and draw up national maritime spatial plans by 31 March 2021.

Marine Knowledge 2020

Central to the Marine Knowledge strategy stands the European Marine Observation and Data Network

(EMODnet), which is a single entry point for accessing and retrieving marine data maintained by agencies,

public authorities, research institutions and universities throughout the EU and embraces the full cycle, from

initial observation through interpretation, processing and dissemination. The development of the EMODnet

aims to cover the huge gaps in marine data collection and management across Europe and provide a

functional tool for marine spatial planning and better maritime surveillance.

The design of the development of EMODnet data infrastructure follows a stepwise approach in three major

phases. Currently EMODnet is in the 2nd phase of development (2013-2016) with 8 sub-portals in operation

that provide access to marine data from the following themes: bathymetry, geology, physics, chemistry,

biology, seabed habitats, human activities and last coastal Mapping as a new thematic area still in its early

Marine Knowledge enshrines basic principles such as “collect data once and use them for many purposes”

and “data should be interoperable, accessible and free of restrictions on use”




20

development phase. In the last phase of EMODNET is envisioned to deliver sustainable digital mapping of

European sea-beds by 2020.

The most relevant data related to a Marine Cadastre are recorded under the theme of “Human Activities” in

the EMODnet portal. The main objective of EMODnet Human Activities is to make information available on

the geographical position, spatial extent and attributes of a wide array of marine and maritime human

activities12 throughout Europe. The portal allows users to view, query and download data and metadata from

public and private sources – from throughout Europe - via a single entry portal.

The Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service (CMEMS) which provides regular and systematic

reference information on the physical state, variability and dynamics of the ocean and marine ecosystems

for the global ocean and the European regional seas can be regarded as complementary to the EMODnet for

the attainment of the Marine Knowledge objectives.

INSPIRE

The INSPIRE Directive (2007/2/EC) which entered into force on May 2007 establishes an infrastructure for

spatial information in Europe to support Community environmental policies, and policies or activities which

may have an impact on the environment. The INSPIRE is based on the infrastructures for spatial information

established and operated by the Member States. The Directive includes three annexes that list 34 data

themes that define the scope of INSPIRE. Examples of data themes of relevance to the marine community

include - but are not limited to - Coordinate reference systems, geographical grid system, Hydrography,

Protected sites, Area Management/Restriction/Regulation Zones and Reporting Units, Bio-geographical

Regions, Elevation (which includes bathymetry and shorelines), Environmental monitoring facilities,

Habitats and Biotopes, Sea regions, and Oceanographic geographical features (JRC, 2015). Even though that

differences have been tracked between INSPIRE and EMODnet in terms of scope, policy frameworks and

technologies, it seems that the “Human Activities” portal of the EMODNet is relevant to the INSPIRE themes

(INSPIRE cluster) “Topographic and Cadastral Reference” and “Facilities, utilities and public services”

according to a draft conceptual mapping between INSPIRE themes and EMODNet topics made by the

Working Group Data Information and Knowledge Exchange (DIKE) (JRC, 2015). The closer alignment and

interoperability between EMODnet and INSPIRE is currently an issue of discussion among the experts

working on these two initiatives at European level.

12

Covers geographical information on aggregate extraction, dredging, fish catches, hydrocarbon extraction, major

ports, mariculture, ocean energy facilities, telecommunication cables, protected areas, waste disposal (solids, including

dredge material, dumped munitions, marine constructions), wind farms, and other forms of area

management/designation. Additional information that is anticipated to be added soon includes the status of bathing

waters, offshore installations, and hydrocarbon licenses and bidding blocks




21

European Atlas of the Seas

Another portal related to marine data is the European Atlas of the Seas13 which disseminates cartographic

information related to EU's coasts and seas both as maps and open data. The portal is maintained and

enriched by JRC with the support of DG MARE. It offers an up-to-date and diverse range of information

about Europe's seas, such as sea depth, underwater features, coastal regions geography and statistics, blue

energies, maritime resources, tide amplitude, coastal erosion, fishing stocks, quotas and catches, European

fishing fleet, aquaculture, maritime transport and traffic, ports' statistics, maritime protected areas, tourism,

maritime policies and initiatives, outermost regions, etc. However the information is of a general nature, not

necessarily comprehensive, complete, accurate or up to date, nor appropriate for legal advice as it is

referred specifically to its disclaimer.

Resume

Whether we consider the design of EMODnet, the outline of INSPIRE, or the set-up of the European Atlas of

the seas, striking is that no (clear) reference is made to the Marine Cadastre and the registration of rights,

titles, restrictions in a structured way.

13

http://ec.europa.eu/maritimeaffairs/atlas/maritime_atlas

3

The State of

Play

Where do the EU and the Member

States stand against the Marine

Cadastre?

3. The State of Play of Marine Cadastre in EU’s Member States

Where do the EU and the Member States stand against the Marine Cadastre?


23

In 2015 a questionnaire intended to gather information on the state of play of Marine Cadastre in Europe

was disseminated through the communication channels of the 5 Common Vision partners to all Member

States. Answers were provided by representatives of 18 European countries: Austria, Belgium, Croatia,

Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia,

Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.

The analysis showed that approximately one third of the responded countries have no initiatives concerning

marine cadastre, marine spatial planning or other related marine spatial data infrastructure. The other

countries have some sort of information portals concerning sea and coast or are establishing a registry only

on the coastal part. According to the answers in the questionnaire none of the countries have a full-fledged

established marine cadastre.

As regards specifically the existing Marine Data information portals in EU Member States, these are either

operative or are pilot projects. The websites providing these data are often unknown to the public and the

range of the available data is quite limited. The available marine data often concerns Seabed maps

(Bathymetry), Navigation information, Fishing rights and Coastline cartography.

One of the countries which seem to have a quite developed Marine Spatial Data Infrastructure is Germany. It

was developed as a supranational network for the integration of marine data from all relevant data sources

(Federal or State Institutions, Research organizations). The project was funded by the German Ministry of

Education and Research and a cooperation agreement between the partners for permanent operation was

made (Melles J., 2015). The portal (https://www.mdi-de.org ) provides access, visualization and search

capabilities to marine data on several themes like Human Activities, Wind Parks, Reserves, Federal

Waterways, Bathymetry, Geology etc. and is INSPIRE compliant. In Germany there is another website(

https://www.geoseaportal.de/gdi-bsh-portal/ui) which provides marine data on complementary themes

such as Spatial Planning, Shipping, Water Pollution, Marine Environment, Navigation etc. and is operating

from the Federal Hydrographic Agency of Germany (Rüh C., Bill R., 2012b).

Figures 9,10: View of the Start page of the Marine Data Infrastructure of Germany and the GeoSeaPortal




24

The French National Hydrographic Service web site www.shom.fr provides bathymetry, tides and currents

data. Interesting aspects of this website are that It fulfils INSPIRE directive requirements and that it can also

display data from other portals due to standardized flows.

Figure 11: Example of display from the portal developed by the French National Hydrographic Service showing the

Morbihan Gulf with map of the coastal area, the currents and the Bathymetry

Additionally the questionnaire revealed that the existing Marine Data information portals have been

developed in most of the cases without active involvement of the national Land Registry and Cadastre

Organizations. Exceptions to this are the cases of Denmark and Estonia. In particular the MSDI of Denmark is

being developed from the Danish Geodata Agency. In fact Denmark is demonstrating a rapid pace towards

the development of a MSDI and “expansion” of the land cadastre to the sea territory. Specifically with regard

to the MSDI, in 2015, together with 10 other agencies, the Danish Geodata Agency initiated the

implementation of a Danish MSDI. The aim of establishing a Danish MSDI is to make marine spatial data

easily accessible and available for comparison and exchange across the maritime authorities for various

purposes. In addition, the idea is that the MSDI will be able to provide information on the data in question

(metadata), e.g. when the data was collected and updated, how the data can be accessed, the quality hereof

and so on. The MSDI will be implemented and authoritative data and associated services will be made

available during the period 2015-2016 (http://eng.gst.dk/danish-hydrographic-office/msdi/). The Danish

Geodata Agency is also responsible for collecting, managing and publishing hydrographic data, including

nautical charts and nautical publications and as of 2016, will also have responsibility for registering buildings

on the sea territory in the Danish cadastre. These will be registered as simple polygons, at sea mostly in

relation to offshore wind turbines and similar structures.

In Estonia the “Geoportal” of the Estonian Land Board hosts a specific “Marine Areas Application”




25

(http://xgis.maaamet.ee/xGIS/XGis) which encompasses data for the whole Estonian marine area in Baltic

Sea. The available datasets include everything important for marine navigation: Sea depths, Lights, harbor

information, buoys, beacons, submarine cables and networks, obstructions, wrecks etc. The lead

organisation is the Estonian Land Board which provides the relevant interactive maps while attribute data

are coming from the Estonian Maritime Administration.

Figure 12: The Estonian Marine Areas application in Estonia’s Geoportal

Examples of portals with marine data which have been developed in the context of pilot Maritime Spatial

Planning projects are the ADRIPLAN Data portal (data.adriplan.eu) which shows 71 layers of data on the

Adriatic-Ionian Sea of the Mediterranean Sea and the THAL-XOR portal (http://www.mspcygr.info/thal-xor/)

which is a result of a cross boarder cooperation between Cyprus and Greece (Balla, 2016). Another project

that is still under development is the initiative of the French OGE (Land Surveyors Order) for a Coastal and

Sea Portal which is to be integrated to the GEOLAND portal which will therefore become a unique tool to

display land, coastal and marine 3D data (Smith, 2016).

Resume

It’s important to note that the answers from the questionnaire verified that the production, collection,

maintenance and dissemination of marine data are dispersed to a wide array of actors and there are

restrictions on their access. Overall, the experience gained from the questionnaire reveals that the

development of marine cadastre and marine spatial data infrastructure in Europe is at an early stage and

only a few respondents were familiar with the term of a Marine Cadastre. It is anticipated however that in

the context of the implementation of the Maritime Spatial Planning Directive, more information systems

will be developed in the Member States and therefore the need for authoritative data will increase in the

near future.

4

Main

conclusions

and way

forward

4. Main conclusions and way forward

Main conclusions


27

1 Several jurisdictions outside of the European continent, with strong ocean and

sea interests, have shown a rapid pace towards the development of the Marine

Cadastre since 1994, when the UNCLOS came into effect. Our review of the existing literature and implemented projects revealed that the geomatics

community (state agencies, professionals and academia) have demonstrated an intense interest

to apply land administration techniques to the marine environment in several regions (i.e.

Australia, USA, Canada etc.) quite earlier than Europe. Following this interest, several

sophisticated web mapping services have been developed based on open and re-use data policies and the concept of the Multipurpose Cadastre. However the majority of the existing

projects present a lack of a real marine cadastral registration component appropriate for secure

process for transfer of titles, establishment of mortgages etc.

2

Land cadastre is partially a good analogy to the Marine Cadastre. Tough principles of the land cadastre might be similar to that of the marine cadastre however

we do see differences. We have surely seen and we can use the analogy with the land cadastre,

if it comes to the system for registration. On the other hand the legal framework differs and the

dynamics are entirely different: limited amount of sea parcels and limited amount of

transactions. This affects the solution and appearance of the marine cadastre.

3 The Marine Cadastre is a base layer of the Marine Spatial Data Infrastructure

offering fundamental information relating to maritime boundaries and

associated rights and responsibilities, regularly updated and maintained. However the study identified that the MSDI is at an early phase in Europe. It is anticipated

though that as the need for boosting the 5 sectors of the Blue Economy gains increased focus at

the EU level, more information systems will be developed in the Member States. Subsequently,

the need for authoritative data relating to boundaries and spatial extents of rights associated

with human activities in the sea will increase in the near future.

4

Marine Cadastre is not Maritime Spatial Planning but it’s the most important

underpinning data sources to enable its implementation. The growing emerging concept of Maritime Spatial Planning since mid-2000 both in academic research as in implemented projects has created misconceptions with Marine Cadastre. As we

have seen from our survey, many people refer to Marine Cadastre when they have MSP in their

minds. Therefore conceptual clarifications are needed: Marine Cadastre is not Maritime Spatial

Planning. MSP is a process determining where and when human activities happen in the sea. The

Marine Registry and Cadastre is a system providing all the necessary information (who, how,

where) about the 3R’s (rights, restrictions, responsibilities) associated with human activities on

the marine environment. In fact the Marine Cadastre provides the most important underpinning

data sources to enable MSP implementation since the process of planning requires the

knowledge of boundaries and related cadastre information. Therefore Marine Cadastre can

facilitate decisively the process of MSP.


Main conclusions


28

5

The EU relevant policy framework recognizes the necessity to attain “legal

certainty” in the marine environment. However it is the cross cutting tool of the Maritime Spatial Planning which has been identified as

the most appropriate to achieve legal certainty for all stakeholders in the maritime arena, to

enhance the investment climate in Blue Economy Sector and to reduce transaction costs. The study identified further that there is no kind of reference to the notion of “Marine Cadastre” in

the EU’s legal framework. Instead, the “spatial dimension” on the administration of the marine

environment is being reflected in the 2014/89 EC Directive (MSP), though without any explicit

link to the rights which are associated with the human activities in marine areas. The same

applies to national legal frameworks where only a few cases were identified with specific

reference to registrations in the sea environment.

6

The most relevant data to a Marine Cadastre are recorded under the theme of

“Human Activities” in the EMODNET portal. However the study identified that the information provided through EMODNET portal is of a

static nature, more suitable for other purposes (e.g. statistics, planning, research), whereas the

“legal” component (validated and authoritative information about associated rights) does not

seem to be fully nor properly developed to support the “offshore property” market. The same

also applies to the “spatial” component where authoritative and updated data are needed to

secure interests, restrictions and responsibilities of Member States, industry and citizens.

7 A wide array of actors and stakeholders are involved in the management of the

marine environment and production of marine data, though the competent

national Land Registry and Cadastre organizations have been scarcely so far

engaged. The study revealed that responsibilities and jurisdictions in the marine environment

(demarcation of coastline, delimitation of marine areas, granting of rights and permits,

concessions, planning, protection) are scattered and shared over a diverse and multiple range

of actors (national authorities, institutes, organizations). The same complicated pattern exists in the production, collection, maintenance and dissemination of marine data while restrictions on

access have been detected.

8 Existing Marine Information Systems (either operative or on pilot basis) are

developed either on the concept of EMODNET or to serve other needs (ICZM

strategy, MSP, marine areas’ delimitation) but not a Marine Cadastre. The currently developed (IT) systems and information portals have a rather statistical and

descriptive nature. Apart from the fact that typical cadastral information on (ownership) rights

and restrictions is lacking, the process of actively maintaining data is not present. The

registration is a dynamic process that induces a constant updating (adding, changing, deletion)

of the registered data. The quick and easy retrieval of data is an important aspect of the IT-

system, and that is not a strong point either in EMODnet and various national portals studies.


Way forward: Indicative areas for further action


29

The current study is considered as preliminary and is aiming among others at detecting the extent of interest

in the topic of Marine Cadastre by the national Land Registry and Cadastre organisations, other competent

national authorities and/or European institutional bodies and administrative organs. Therefore any follow up

initiative on behalf of the 5 Common Vision Partners should be inter-related with feedback and interest that

may be expressed by national or European authorities.

Thus, a number of follow up studies that could be undertaken in a next phase is presented here:

Develop a blue print for the marine cadastre

For the preparation of a blue print, the main technical, legal, institutional and operational aspects of a

Marine Registry and Cadastre would be identified including business processes and information supply. The

issues to be investigated further include the optimal spatial boundaries (landward/seaward) of a Marine

Cadastre, the best wise approach for the design and development of a Marine Cadastre, the type of data

that should be registered, the issue of 4D rights in marine space as well as other legal aspects dealing with

multiple interests for the same space at the same time etc. and lastly the institutional aspects for the best

organisation of a Marine Cadastre within the administrative system of a country.

Carry out market study and perform user need assessment

If we have a look at the conclusions we must admit that to some extent we made assumptions on what users

really need in terms of a marine cadastre. Starting from the ideal-typical set of arguments, we need to check

what outspoken needs for a marine cadastre really exist. We need to check whether the blue economy is

indeed supported by better registration of rights and that the propose solution will work.

Prepare proposals for improvement of the EU-framework

The EU legal framework should be more directive regarding the provision of registration of rights, licenses,

concessions and all kind of restrictions. Basis for the framework should be the UNCLOS and relevant EU

Directives. In this study elements for the framework are proposed.

Prepare positioning paper for national authorities

Based on the results of this study and with additional findings from further studies we will draft a white

paper to unfold our recommendations. Whether that can be a paper that has a more general character or

that we will be able to draft a country-specific one is to be seen, and is depending on available information,

resources and time.

Epilogue: Rationale and contours of Marine Cadastre

I. Why a Marine Cadastre in Europe?


30

The relevance of a Marine Cadastre originates from:

� The need to implement the UNCLOS thus guaranteeing and securing sovereign state rights in the sea

area: A Marine Cadastre that records obligations and restrictions deriving from the delimitation of

marine areas according to the Convention will inform all persons concerned and contribute without any

doubt to their enforcement, guaranteeing decisively the sovereign state rights. The information

contained in a Marine Cadastre relating to the patrimonial rights that exist in the territorial sea and the

EEZ waters and the soil and subsoil of these areas, will also prove very useful in that it will inform the

authorities and all other stakeholders about the legal holders (owners, lessors, users, license holders,

etc.) and exact content and location of these rights.

� The need of publicity and legal certainty in the marine environment to reduce conflicts on the

overlapping rights, interests and responsibilities: Registration is the recording of deeds relating to the

creation or transfer of rights in rem in immovable goods (or ships) or relating to charges or restrictions

encumbering immovable goods (or ships) on specific registers kept at public land or ship registries.

Registration is a legally acknowledged proof that the rights of the registered owner, beneficiary,

transferee, mortgagee etc., are protected against third parties (deed system) or that the registered

person is really legally entitled to the right (title system). Publicity and legal certainty resulting from

registration are of paramount importance for a sound real estate market and a performing credit sector,

and ultimately for a thriving economy as such. This means that the establishment of a marine cadastre

that identifies and describes the physical parcel and its boundaries, should have to be flanked by

registration in the registers of the deed creating or transferring the rights, charges or restrictions with

respect to the marine cadastral parcel.

� The need to enhance public revenues deriving from the taxation of marine patrimonial rights and

exploitation of marine resources: As with the land-based cadastre which was primarily established for

taxation purposes, likewise, a marine cadastre would lay the foundation for a fair taxation system

allowing to tax both sea-related property and sea-generated incomes. In the Exclusive Economic Zone

(EEZ), taxation on property and incomes would obviously only be possible following prior registration of

the offshore units under a national flag, ideally pursuant to international conventions concluded at the

initiative of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) and/or of the Comité Maritime International

(CMI).

� The need to implement binding legal provisions for maritime spatial planning: The European

Commission attaches much importance to the establishment and implementation of maritime spatial

plans by Member States, with the aim of promoting sustainable growth of maritime economies,

sustainable development of marine areas and sustainable use of marine resources. A marine cadastre

that records general marine spatial planning restrictions, such as shipping routes, fishing and

aquaculture zones, disposal sites, energy atolls, corridors for cables and pipelines, nature reserves, etc.


I. Why a Marine Cadastre in Europe?


31

will inform all persons concerned and will certainly contribute to their enforcement.

� Ultimately it is anticipated that a Marine Cadastre will benefit the development and growth of a

sustainable Blue Economy.

From the study is becomes more and more clear that a Marine Cadastre can support the Blue Economy.

As we have seen with security of land tenure and/or land rights, they foster in general economic

development, especially in those sectors where large investments in constructions are required to do

business. For the priority sectors as defined in the Blue Growth programme, this will focus on

aquaculture and energy production, where large investments are needed and financial risks are

manifest.


II. What inside a Marine Cadastre?


32

As being said, it was out of the scope of this study to outline the features of an ideal Marine Cadastre or to

develop a blue print. However, as a hint to the debate about the contents of a Marine Cadastre, this section

aims to describe briefly the short of rights and restrictions to be encompassed in a Marine Cadastre. A public

registration needs to be based upon a cadastre14 that locates, delimits and describes the cadastral object and

records and indicates its use as well as all relevant public and private rights, restrictions (including inter alia

the planning restrictions) and charges on that cadastral object. Likewise, an effective registration system

regarding marine patrimonial rights, charges and restrictions can only be effective if an accurate Marine

Cadastre is established and updated according to the latest state of the art technology. To this end, actual

spatial data regarding the location and description of the maritime boundaries (the basic cadastral

information) is to be completed by the following information regarding UNCLOS rights, charges and

restrictions and the national patrimonial rights that a Marine Cadastre would take into account (De Latte,

2016b):

1. the sovereignty exercised by the coastal state

2. the public rights, responsibilities and restrictions that define the sovereignty of the coastal state according to the UNCLOS i.e.:

� the paramount right of innocent passage;

� the fishing rights in favour of other states ;

� the general marine spatial planning restrictions (e.g. shipping routes, protected sandbanks, special fishing and aquaculture

zones, areas for sand and gravel exploitation, energy atolls, areas for wind farms, corridors for cables and pipelines, disposal sites

for dredged material, extension zones for ports, sites for coastal protection, zones for military exercises, protected wrecks and

underground cultural heritage);

� protection and preservation of the marine environment ;

� conservation of living and non-living resources;

� marine scientific research;

� protection of archaeological and historical objects found at sea;

� private rights in personam based on licenses, concessions or leases granted by the coastal state to companies for exploration

and exploitation of the territorial sea (e.g. sand and gravel extraction, crude oil and natural gas extraction, mining, fishing,

aquaculture, energy production, dumping of dredging material etc.) – these rights are temporary in that they only last for the

duration of the licenses, concessions or leases;

3. public and private rights in rem (patrimonial rights)

� the overall public property of the soil and subsoil and its resources (‘public domain’ of the coastal state);

� the private property rights and other rights in rem owned by the holders of licenses and concessions with regard to:

− immovable goods (offshore units fixed to the seabed & pipelines and cables if fixed to the seabed or embedded in the

subsoil) – the property rights to these goods are temporary in that they only last for the duration of the licenses,

concessions or leases;

− movable goods (mobile offshore units & pipelines and cables lying on the seabed without being fixed to it & living and non-

living resources appropriated pursuant to the licences, concessions or leases but only for the

− duration of these licenses, concessions or leases).

14

In this context a ‘cadastral object’ means: a cadastral parcel on the seabed of the territorial sea or a delimited and geographically

described part of the seabed of the EEZ where the foundations of fixed offshore units (such as wind farm turbines, platforms for

drilling, elevating and other activities, aquaculture installations, energy production and stockage facilities, scientific research

installations) are imbedded; this ‘cadastral object’ would also include an accurate description of the fixed offshore units concerned.

Table 1: Rights and restrictions in the Territorial Sea to be registered in a Marine Cadastre


II. What inside a Marine Cadastre?


33

1. the sovereign economic rights granted under UNCLOS to the coastal state;

2. the rights, responsibilities and restrictions that define the sovereign rights of the coastal state i.e.:

� the paramount right of free navigation and overflight ;

� the right of other states to lay and maintain cables and pipelines;

� the fishing rights in favor of other states (pursuant to European or international law or bilateral agreements);

� general marine spatial planning restrictions (shipping routes & protected sandbanks & special fishing and aquaculture

zones & areas for sand and gravel exploitation & energy atolls & areas for wind farms & corridors for cables and pipelines &

disposal sites for dredged material & extension zones for ports & sites for coastal protection & zones for military exercises &

protected wrecks and underground cultural heritage);

� protection and preservation of the marine environment;

� conservation of living and non-living resources;

� marine scientific research;

� protection of archaeological and historical objects found at sea;

� private rights in personam based on licences, concessions or leases granted by the coastal state to companies for

exploration and exploitation of the EEZ (e.g. sand and gravel extraction, crude oil and natural gas extraction mining, fishing,

aquaculture, energy production, dumping of dredging material etc.) - these rights are temporary in that they only last for

the duration of the licenses, concessions or leases;

3. private rights in rem (i.e. the private property rights and other rights in rem owned by the holders of licenses, concessions or

leases. Those property rights and rights in rem or patrimonial rights exist with regard to following goods which are to be

considered as ‘movables’ ):

� fixed and mobile offshore units (artificial islands, installations and structures) – the rights to fixed offshore units are

temporary in that they only last for the duration of the licenses, concessions or leases involved. The licenses, concessions or

leases having allowed for their construction;

� pipelines and cables lying on the seabed or embedded into the seabed;

� living and non-living resources appropriated pursuant to the licences, concessions or leases but only for the duration of

the licences, concessions or leases involved.

It is obvious that Marine Cadastre is a topic of high interest to many countries in the world, in terms of

guaranteeing and securing their national interests from an economic, environmental and social point of

view. The experience gained through this study and the fact that the land cadastre in many countries is

extending to include the coastline while much of the technology that is used in land surveying is applicable

to the marine environment as well, showed us that the effective management of the marine environment

requires a multidisciplinary approach while further we understand that land and sea should be treated in a

holistic and integrated manner. To this end, we have the perception that the experience and expertise of

the 5 Common Vision partners in the fields of Cadastre, Registry, Surveying, Mapping and Spatial Data

Infrastructures should be taken into account to the new topic on the exploitation and sustainable

management of the oceans and seas of the European Union. This is a challenge for both land surveyors and

for marine industries as well, to embrace the role of surveyors as not just ‘land’ related, but having the

expertise to help spatially define and administer the marine environment l (Williamson et.al., 2005).

Table 2: Rights and restrictions in the Exclusive Economic Zone to be registered in a Marine Cadastre

Annex: The project team


34

The following experts participated in and contributed variously to the elaboration of this

preliminary study for on the Marine Cadastre in Europe (listed in alphabetical order):

• Magdalena Andersson, Sweden, Business developer, Lantmäteriet

• Evangelia Balla, Greece, Member of the Scientific Council, NCMA S.A., PCC

• Maurice Barbieri, Switzerland, President CLGE

• Guido De Latte, Belgium, Ship Registrar, ELRA

• Gordon Johnston, UK, RICS surveyor expert

• Gerard Leenders, Netherlands, Expert EULIS / Kadaster

• Ivana Racetin, Croatia, Associate Prof, University of Split/Chamber of Chartered Surveyors

• Enrico Rispoli, Italy, Board member Consiglio Nazionale Geometri e Geometri Laureat

• Maria Scorza, Italy, staff member Consiglio Nazionale Geometri e Geometri Laureat

• Per Sörbom, Sweden, Head of section, property information management, Lantmäteriet

• Karen Schweigler, Netherlands, Management Assistant Kadaster

• Nicolas Smith, France, Vice-President CLGE

• Haico van der Vegt, Netherlands, NSDI-expert Kadaster

• Rik Wouters, Netherlands, Managing Director EULIS

• Marjana Zelic, Croatia, Expert EuroGeographics

Appendices

Appendix 1 : Status by country1)

1) The Appendix includes not all EU Member States, but only those for which information has been gathered through

the Questionnaire. For more country information you may refer to the contact persons listed in appendix 2.


36

Austria

Not a Marine Cadastre or a Marine Data information system.

Belgium

No Marine Cadastre exists. However there is: a) a maritime spatial plan for the Belgian part of the

North Sea and b) a Belgian coastal atlas covering the EEZ of Belgium and the coastal municipalities.

The Maritime Spatial Plan was officially approved in 2014 (Royal Decree of 20th

March 2014) from the

coordinating authority which is the Ministry for health, food chain safety and environment. Another

important organization is the Ministry of Finance (General Patrimonial Documentation Administration

AGDP/AAPD) which is responsible for cadastre and land registration in Belgium). (The MSP is freely

available here http://www.health.belgium.be/en/marine-spatial-planning).

The Belgian coastal atlas was published as a response to the European Recommendation in ICZM, to

Provide an overview of the key topics for the Belgian Coast. The atlas provides interactive and

downloadable maps and data, GIS. As of 2010 has included 33 datasets of general categories (such as

geography and spatial structure, the physical environment, integrated coastal zone management, use

of sea areas, nature and environment, tourism and recreation, industry and companies, fisheries and

agriculture, architectural patrimony and culture, living at the coast, coastal defense)

Planned improvements to the Atlas include:

Updating the atlas, Providing more interactive maps, besides the static (and easy to use) maps,

Integrating sustainability indicators into the atlas, Including more marine information.

Croatia

At the moment there is no Marine Cadastre project active in Croatia, but in the past there were two

such projects (pilot project in partnership with Norway and National Real Property Registration and

Cadastre Program, known as « Organised Land »). There is an existing system for determination of the

Marine Cadastre, especially its land border (legislative and technical protocols). Its lead organization is

Ministry of Maritime Affairs which is responsible for the marine protection in the country. There is no

public web site. For the moment is not INSPIRE compliant. It concerns the marine area of the whole

Adriatic east coast of the Republic of Croatia.

Cyprus

No Marine Cadastre exists. However preparations for the implementation of the MSP Directive are

already in place. In particular, a Committee for Maritime Spatial Planning and Integrated Coastal Zone

Management has been established by the Ministerial Council since 25/07/2012. Its role is to give its

proposals about Maritime Spatial Planning (zoning all maritime activities) to decision makers. The

Cyprus Lands and Survey Department is a member of this committee and its role is to give the spatial

infrastructure for maritime planning.

In order to gain experience in Maritime Spatial Planning in 2013 a program was awarded to a

partnership from Cyprus and Greece. The program’s (THAL-CHOR) objective is to develop Maritime

Spatial Plans for a pilot area. The program ended in September 2015. It is under the auspices of the

INTERREG GRECE – CYPRUS. In Cyprus the lead organization for Maritime Spatial Planning is the

Department of Merchant Shipping and for Integrated Coastal Zone Management the leader

organization is the Department of Environment. All marine data are freely available except from

classified which are referring mainly to the marine archaeological sites. The marine data are being

collected by the Department of Lands and Surveys while the Oceanographic Centre of the University of

Cyprus is another stakeholder. There are multiple actors exercising responsibilities on marine

protection such as the Department of Environment, the Department of Merchant Shipping and the

Department of Fisheries and Marine Research.



37

Denmark

Denmark is demonstrating a rapid pace towards the development of a MSDI and “expansion” of the

land cadastre to the sea territory. Specifically with regard to the MSDI, in 2015, together with 10 other

agencies, the Danish Geodata Agency initiated the implementation of a Danish MSDI. The aim of

establishing a Danish MSDI is to make marine spatial data easily accessible and available for

comparison and exchange across the maritime authorities for various purposes. In addition, the idea is

that the MSDI will be able to provide information on the data in question (metadata), e.g. when the

data was collected and updated, how the data can be accessed, the quality hereof and so on. The

MSDI will be implemented and authoritative data and associated services will be made available

during the period 2015-2016 (see here http://eng.gst.dk/danish-hydrographic-office/msdi/ ).

The Danish Geodata Agency is responsible for collecting, managing and publishing hydrographic data,

including nautical charts and nautical publications. As of 2016, will also have responsibility for

registering buildings on the sea territory in the Danish cadastre, in conjunction with new responsibility

for registering buildings on rented property. These will be registered as simple polygons, at sea mostly

in relation to offshore wind turbines and similar structures.

The Danish Nature Agency under the Ministry of the Environment has lead responsibility, but a range

of other public bodies hold responsibilities as well for elements of marine protection (ie. coastal

planning, dredging and depth maintenance, monitoring maritime air emissions, etc.)

As regards the Open Data strategy in Denmark, the “Basic Data Programme” is an initiative under

Denmark’s Government Strategy which makes a range of public sector data freely available for public

use. The programme came into effect in January 2013 and encompasses a range of Geodata but it

doesn’t include hydrographic data. Denmark’s Ministry of Finance is responsible for the programme

and the related strategy.

Estonia

In Estonia there is not such a Marine Cadastre but there is a specific “Marine Areas Application” which

operates within the context of the “Geoportal” of the Estonian Land Board (see here

http://geoportaal.maaamet.ee/eng/ and here

http://xgis.maaamet.ee/xGIS/XGis?app_id=PRIM01&user_id=at&bbox=270365,6326119.04648526,74

1174,6705114.95351474&LANG=2). The lead organization is the Estonian Land Board which provides

the relevant interactive maps while attribute data are coming from the Estonian Maritime

Administration. It is INSPIRE compliant and it encompasses data for the whole Estonian marine area in

Baltic Sea. The available datasets are including everything important for marine navigation: Sea

depths, Lights, harbor information, buoys, beacons, submarine cables and networks, obstructions,

wrecks etc. The competent national authority for marine protection is the Estonian Maritime

Administration.

Finland

Paikkatietoikkuna (www.paikkatietoikkuna.fi) is the finnish SDI. Unfortunately, an MSDI is not available

probably due major organizational changes of breaking down the Finnish Maritime Administration in

to private companies in 2010 and the Finnish Maritime Research Center between the Finnish

Environment Institute and Meteorologial Instutute a few year earlier. The governmental Traffic

Agency has however promised that marine products will be opened ”little by little” (Traffic Agency

web page, 2013). The SDI has in any case been a success, with over 40,000,000 service requests

monthly in 2012 . The Finnish Transport Agency’s Hydrographic Office is responsible for the

hydrographic operations in Finland. The Hydrographic Office publishes electronic and printed charts of

the Finnish coastal areas and inland waterways, and maintains a chart updating service. It also

maintains a hydrographic data service and publishes information related to nautical charts.

The following web-sites provide relevant information:

http://www.liikennevirasto.fi/web/en/merchant-shipping/paper-charts#.V5es6_mLTIU

http://www.bshc.pro/services/

http://inspire.ec.europa.eu/reports/stateofplay2011/rcr11FIv12%200.pdf

http://www.paikkatietoikkuna.fi/web/en/sdi-in-finland

http://www.syke.fi/en-

us/Research__Development/Sustainable_management_of_the_Baltic_Sea_and_freshwater_resources

/Information_and_data_systems

http://www.ymparisto.fi/en-US/Sea http://www.helcom.fi.



38

France

With over 11 million km2 of marine waters, including its overseas territories, France has the second

largest exclusive economic zone in the world. France has declared an EEZ off its coasts in the North

Sea, the English Channel, and the Atlantic Ocean—but not the Mediterranean.

In France exists a Sea and Coastline portal (Portail du littoral et de la mer) which has been developed

by the “Ordre des Geometres-experts” (Smith, 2016). The portal addresses all the marine and coastal

data as well as the conflicts of “use” rights (overlapping uses, granted rights) and is INSPIRE compliant.

It’s a tool to collect all the cartographic and regulatory (zoning and associated texts) data concerning

the coastal area and the maritime public area; the sea boundaries are the territorial waters and at the

current stage of development the portal targets 2 pilot areas: one near Marseille and one near Sete (at

the Mediterranean Sea). In France it has been reported the existence of restrictions on access to

marine data and a diversity of actors which collect, manage and publish marine data or hold

responsibilities on the marine environment such as the State, Water Agencies, Nature Reserves,

IFREMER. The French National Hydrographic Service web site www.shom.fr provides bathymetry,

tides and currents data.

Germany

Marine Spatial Data Infrastructure (MDI-DE) exists already in Germany (https://www.mdi-de.org ) It

has been developed as a supranational network of for the integration of marine data from all relevant

data sources (Federal or State Institutions, Research organizations). The project was funded by the

German Ministry of Education and Research and a cooperation agreement between the partners for

permanent operation was made (Melles J., 2015). The portal (https://www.mdi-de.org) provides

access, visualization and search capabilities to marine data on several themes like Human Activities,

Wind Parks, Reserves, Federal Waterways, Bathymetry, Geology etc. and is INSPIRE compliant.

There is another website (https://www.geoseaportal.de/gdi-bsh-portal/ui) which provides marine

data on complementary themes such as Spatial Planning, Shipping, Water Pollution, Marine

Environment, Navigation etc. and is operating from the Federal Hydrographic Agency of Germany.

Greece

Greece has not developed yet a Marine Cadastre, though there is a growing awareness about the

benefits of an integrated Marine Information System which could support decisively the objectives of

the EU’s Integrated Maritime Policy in the sea basins around Greece and boost further Greece’s Blue

Economy the latter which contributes to a great part on the overall GDP of the country. In particular

there are a few research initiatives that have been taken lately towards this direction which aimed at

the development of a pilot Marine Cadastre project in the Ionian Sea (Arvanitis, Parri, 2014) and the

drafting of principles and technical specifications of a Marine Cadastral System according to the “fit-

for-purpose” theory and the specifications of the Hellenic Land Cadastre (Dimitrouli M., 2015). On

the other hand, Greece has been involved in the implementation of two Maritime Spatial Planning

transboundary Projects (ADRIPLAN and THALHOR) aimed at the preparation of the country to the

implementation of the EU Directive 2014/89 on Maritime Spatial Planning.

Responsibilities over the protection and management of the marine environment and coastal areas

and therefore to the collection, production and management of relevant marine datasets are

spreading into the scope of several ministries and governmental agencies, among them the Ministry of

Environment and Energy (YPEN), the Ministry of Shipping and Insular Policy, the Ministry of Finance,

the Hellenic Navy Hydrographic Service etc. (Balla, 2016a).

Italy

Italy has a detailed marine cadastre in telematic connection with the international infrastructure of

interchange of geographic, spatial and census data. This information concerns the Marine Areas in

Italy that extend for 7500 linear km and occupy a coastal area of over 550,000 square kilometres. The

coasts and the territorial sea are "public goods for navigation". The Coastal Territory constitutes a

particular category of public goods within the larger variety of "state property", that is, state-owned

assets. The coastal area is composed of the Maritime Domain and the Territorial Sea. In Italy, the

cartographic representation of the national territory is entrusted to the Istituto Geografico Militare of

Firenze while the cartographic representation of the sea (maritime cartography) is entrusted to the

Istituto Idrografico della Marina Militare of Genova. The update of cadastral data and the specific use

of the maritime domain are represented in the portal SID (Information System of the coastal area)

managed by the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport. The Italian Territory, including the Maritime

one, is represented geographically by the Military Geographical Institute (IGM) which has the task of

providing a topographic support to Italian Units and Army Commands.

All information is available through the link:

http://www.agenziaentrate.gov.it/wps/content/nsilib/nsi/home/servizi+online/sid


39

Latvia

According to the information obtained from the Questionnaire there isn’t any Marine Cadastre or

Marine Data information system in Latvia. It has been reported that Marine Data are currently scarcely

available. On state level, the competent organization is the State Environmental Service

(www.vvd.gov.lv).

Portugal

No information regarding the existence of a MC or an MSDI provided through the Questionnaire.

However additional desk research revealed that a partnership (National Land Survey from Iceland, the

Norwegian Mapping Authority, and the Portuguese Sea and Atmosphere Institute) has undertaken a

project to develop a Marine Spatial Data Infrastructure (MSDI) database to collate and harmonize

marine data spread over institutions and connect the data to geographical information, ensuring

better coordination and information sharing. MSDI will integrate technology, methodology and

scientific standards with policy and serve as a basis for decision-making.

Romania

It has been reported the absence of a Marine Cadastre or a Marine Data information system. The

competent national organization for collecting, managing and publishing hydrographic data and

nautical charts or conducting hydrographic surveys is the Maritime Hydrographic Directorate (MHD)

which is member of the IHO (International Hydrographic Organization). The MHD in addition to

supporting the safe navigation at the Black sea, underpins almost every other activity associated with

the sea, including the resource exploitation, fishing, minerals, maritime boundaries delimitation,

national marine spatial data infrastructure, coastal zone management, marine science etc.

Slovenia

In Slovenia Marine Cadastre has been established with the Water Act and covers Territorial sea waters

of Slovenia. Data (land parcel and cadastral community) are registered within land cadastre data base

at Surveying and Mapping Authority of the Republic of Slovenia (www.gu.gov.si). With the Decree on

designation of the sea fishing area of the Republic of Slovenia fishing zones were established. The

Maritime Code of the Republic of Slovenia defines internal and territorial waters and Slovenian

ecological protection zone and High Seas in Adriatic Sea. The competent national authorities for

marine protection are the Ministry of Infrastructure (Slovenian Maritime Administration,

www.up.gov.si/en ) and the National Institute of Biology (Marine Biology station Piran,

www.mbss.org). Ministry of Infrastructure is also responsible for hydrographic activities and safety of

navigation. Geodetic institute of Slovenia is responsible for collecting, processing and publishing of

hydrographic data and information, including nautical charts and publications. Ministry of the

Environment and Spatial Planning is responsible for maritime planning in the coastal area and sea

under Slovenian jurisdiction.

Spain

As regards the coastal zone, any real estate in this area is being surveyed by the Coastal Demarcation

office from Ministry of Environment, registered in the land register and being depicted on the

cadastral map. The coastal boundaries of the public maritime areas are available online on the

Environment Ministry’s website, and also from there link with the Virtual office of cadastre. An SDI

with geographic information about the marine areas exists. The available Information is related to

bathymetry, nature of the seabed, administrative, legal and marine limits, fishing areas (shoals),

artificial reefs, proposed Protected Marine Areas, marine bioregions and other environmental

parameters. The Spanish SDI initiative about land data has reached a very high level of development

and outreach, but it is necessary to make an effort to extend SDI paradigm to marine

and coastal information. The Spanish NSDI (www.idee.es)

http://www.iho.int/mtg_docs/com_wg/IRCC/EC_IHO/EC-IHO-

04/Documents/7%204th%20IHM_MSDI.pdf has a data layer about Hydrography however it seems

that the available data are related to inland waters. The Spanish Hydrographic Institute as of 2013 was

planning to provide Web Mapping Services on electronic Navigational Charts, the Spanish coastline

(scale 1:50,000), Baselines (from which maritime boundaries are defined) and maritime boundaries.

As regards the maritime spatial planning, a number of initiatives related to MSP (i.e. MPAs,

Natura2000, renewable energy) are underway, but so far, no multi-sector MSP initiatives have been

developed (source http://www.unesco-ioc-marinesp.be/msp_around_the_world/spain )



40

Sweden

The rights as to the Sea are based on international law; Law of the Sea, as well as on national law and

agreements between nations. The concept of rights may differ between countries.

In Sweden the Law (1950:595) on Boundary to Public Water defines the context of public water. “A

water area in the sea is public (public water) if not included in a real property (private water)”.

Sweden has public water along the coastline, the islands of Öland and Gotland and the following four

lakes; Vänern, Vättern, Hjälmaren and Storsjön.

A real property in Sweden consists of land and can also include water (e.g. in the sea, lakes, rivers and

wetlands). The Law on Boundary to Public Water also defines the area in the sea that are included in

the real properties. The Land Code (1970:994) refers to the regulations on boundaries to public water.

Public water in the territorial sea is managed by the state within the context of national and

international legislation. The government could be seen as having a right to provide a “disposition

right” in its territorial water. This right is a non-exclusive right but is a requisite for e.g. environmental

impact assessment in Sweden.

The fact that it is more of an “entitlement” and not an “exclusive right” puts the issue of different

tenure systems in the spotlight and how to manage different types of tenure systems.

The Netherlands

Over the years an information infrastructure is in place in the Netherland’s EEZ which is basically

operated on a cooperation base among several agencies. The Dutch Kadaster itself extends to the

national boundaries. This information infrastructure is covering the territorial waters and EEZ of the

Netherlands and is partly compliant with INSPIRE. Responsibilities over the marine protection are

falling under the Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment (along with its competent agencies)

and the Ministry of Economic Affairs which is responsible for most of the marine resources. It has

been reported as well that the “built-up’ area at sea expands most notably related to wind parks and

cables and pipelines.

Indeed, the Dutch part of the North Sea, covering an area of about 58,000 km2 (one and a half the

land mass of the Netherlands), is one of the most intensely used marine areas in the world. This fact

has created the need for integrated spatial planning which became particularly urgent because of new

uses requiring ocean space (primarily offshore wind farms and marine protected areas). While some

ocean uses will remain at their current level, considerable growth is forecast for mineral extraction,

water sport recreation, offshore wind farms, nature protection and possibly also mariculture.

Therefore a North Sea Policy Document 2016 – 2021 that summarizes the Netherlands long term

vision (2050) and incorporates a maritime spatial plan which complies with the new EU Directive on

Maritime Spatial Planning (Directive 2014/89/EU of July 2014) has been incorporated in the National

Water Plan which was updated in 2015 and approved on 12th December 2015 by the Cabinet. It can

be found here https://www.noordzeeloket.nl/en/projects/north-sea-policy-in-the-national-water-

plan/ . (source http://www.unesco-ioc-marinesp.be/spatial_management_practice/the_netherlands )

United Kingdom

The concept of marine spatial planning has been developed in the UK with the aim to respond to the

need for better access to information to manage the complex and conflicting rights and interests. The

concept was tested through a pilot project in the Irish Sea involving England, Ireland, Northern Ireland,

Scotland, Wales and the Isle of Man. There are Marine SDI initiatives underway in Ireland and the UK,

but these are currently still at a relatively early stage but see below. In 2003 the United Kingdom

Hydrographic Office (UKHO) launched the Marine Geospatial Data Infrastructure (MGDI). Yet, the

current situation does not fully meet the needs of government, data users or data providers. In order

to implement the MGDI, the UKHO was to evaluate the then currently available and existing data and

then develop mechanisms for exchange of marine and coastal spatial data. The development of the

MGDI was designed to support marine spatial planning (Strain, 2006).

The Marine Management Organisation (MMO) was established to develop planning processes and to

manage the marine areas for the UK government. This is now developed and includes a Marine

Information System which is an interactive GIS spatial planning tool that provides guidance on the

planning process. See: http://mis.marinemanagement.org.uk/. Nevertheless it appears to be quite

separate from the EMODnet initiative with no mention of this important resource. Rather the MMO

site is focused on the process of submitting a plan and the legislation around this.

In 2009 the UK Parliament passed the Marine and Coastal Access Act, which created a marine planning

system for UK waters and a new body, the Marine Management Organisation (MMO), to administer

the system. Scotland is served by the Marine (Scotland) Act 2010, with marine planning for Scotland

run via ‘Marine Scotland’. The United Kingdom Hydrographic Office (UKHO) makes relevant data sets

available in compliance with the (INSPIRE) initiative

Appendix 2: Acknowledgements


41

Respondents to the Questionnaire

Country Name Organization

Austria Julius Ernst BEV- Federal Office for Metrology and

Surveying

Belgium Guido de Latte Ship Registrar, ELRA

Croatia Ivana Racetin University of Split, Faculty of Civil

Engineering, Architecture and

Geodesy, Split, Croatia

Cyprus Georgios Kokkosis Department of Land and Surveys

Denmark Suzanne Dael Danish Geodata Agency

Estonia Mairolt Kakko Association of Estonian Surveyor

Finland Pekka Halme National Land Survey (NLS)

France Mazuyer François Ordre des géomètres-experts

Germany Clemens Kiepke BDVI

Greece Evangelia Balla National Cadastre and Mapping

Agency S.A.

Italy Enrico Rispoli Consiglio Nazionale Geometri e

Geometri Laureat

Latvia Jānis Dreimanis Court administration

Portugal Madalena Grade Instituto dos Registos e do

Notariado,IP (IRN,IP)

Romania Lucian Dumitrache Direcția Hidrografică Maritimă

Scotland Alastair Reid Registers of Scotland

Slovenia Igor Karnicnik

Tomaž Petek

Geodetic institute of Slovenia

Surveying and Mapping Authority of

the Republic of Slovenia

Spain Amalia Velasco Spanish Directorate General for

Cadastre

Sweden Per Sörbom Lantmäteriet

The

Netherlands

Martin Salzmann Cadastre, Land Registry and Mapping

Agency of the Netherlands (Kadaster)

United

Kingdom

Gordon Johnston RICS (UK), Venture Geomatics Ltd (UK)

Appendix 3: Glossary of Terms


42

The following list contains the terms and description/definitions in the report. The most frequently used

abbreviations are also listed in a separate table.

List of Terms and descriptions

Term Generic description

Blue Economy The sum of all economic activity that takes place on, in or associated with the

oceans, seas, ports, harbours and coastal zones.

Blue Growth the long term strategy to support sustainable growth in the marine and

maritime sectors as a whole having regard that seas and oceans are drivers

for the European economy and have great potential for innovation and

growth. It is the maritime contribution to achieving the goals of the Europe

2020 strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth.

Copernicus Marine

Environment Monitoring

Service (CMEMS)

Providing Products and Services for all marine applications

Coastal Mapping Goal is to survey and thus to provide an accurate, consistent, up-to-date

national shoreline. The national shoreline provides the baseline data for

making nautical charts and defining the marine territorial limits, as well as the

geographic reference needed to manage coastal resources, and for many other uses.

Concession A (temporary) contractual right to carry on a certain kind of business or

activity in an area, such as to explore or develop its natural resources or to

operate a “concession stand” within a venue.

Contiguous zone An area of at most 12 nautical miles next to the territorial zone. The coastal

state can monitor it in order to suppress violations of its customs, fiscal,

health or immigration regulations. In some countries it does not exist.

Continental shelf An area of 188 nautical miles next to the territorial zone (to max. 350 nautical

miles to the Territorial Sea Baseline or 100 nm beyond the 2,500 isobath,

whichever is greatest) having inherent sovereign rights for exploring,

exploiting non-living resources of seabed and subsoil plus sedentary species

up to 200 nm; beyond the 200 nm submission is required to the Commission

on the limits of the continental shelf to confirm rights.

Exclusive Economic Zone

(EEZ)

An area of 188 nautical miles next to the territorial zone with sovereign rights

for exploring, exploiting conserving and managing living and non-living

resources of the water column and underlying continental shelf

Appendix 3: Glossary of Terms


43

European Marine

Observation and Data

network (EMODnet)

More than 100 organisations assembling marine data, products and metadata

to make these fragmented resources more available to public and private

users relying on quality-assured, standardised and harmonised marine data

which are interoperable and free of restrictions on use.

Integrated Coastal Zone

Management/Integrated

coastal management

A process for the management of the coast using an integrated approach,

regarding all aspects of the coastal zone, including geographical and political

boundaries, in an attempt to achieve sustainability.

Integrated Maritime Policy

(IMP)

Policy for the EU, based on the clear recognition that all matters relating to

Europe’s oceans and seas are interlinked, and that sea-related policies must

develop in a joined-up way if we are to reap the desired results.

Marine Area One or more marine cadastral parcels dorming an area with the same owner,

and or rights.

Marine cadastre parcel unit or parcel that reflects: 1. The volumetric reality of every distinct marine

zone (sea surface & water column & seabed or soil & subsoil) with: a) the

rights and charges under UNCLOS b) the patrimonial rights which include

rights in rem

and 2. A fourth dimension, meaning the temporary nature of many particular

rights because of the time aspect of most sea-linked activities (fixed terms licences, concessions and leases for mining, production of energy,

aquaculture, fishing, etc… ).

Marine Cadastre A marine cadastre is a system to enable the boundaries of maritime rights and

interests to be recorded, spatially managed and physically defined in

relationship to the boundaries of other neighbouring or underlying rights and

interests. (Robertson et al., 1999).

Marine environment The oceans, seas, bays, estuaries, and other major water bodies, including

their surface interface and interaction, with the atmosphere and with the

land seaward of the mean high water mark.

Marine Protection Protection of all living and non-living resources in the marine environment.

Marine zones All zones related to maritime rights e.g. coastal zone, EEZ, contiguous zone,

territorial coastal waters, continental shelf.

Maritime interests Interests related to the maritime cadastre e.g. fishing rights, shipping routes,

renewable energy

Maritime rights Rights related to the maritime cadastre e.g. fishing rights, shipping routes,

renewable energy

Maritime spatial planning A maritime spatial plan is intended to regulate the use of the marine

area/areas it covers. Process which has the aim of establishing a binding plan

which organizes all economic and ecological activities in a given geographical

sea area.

Territorial sea / Territorial

waters / Territorial Zone

An area of 12 nautical miles starting from the baseline (the mean low water

mark) at the coast

Appendix 4: Abbreviations


44

List of abbreviations

CMEMS Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service

EC European Commission

EESC European Economic and Social Committee

EEZ Exclusive Economic Zone

EMODnet European Marine Observation and Data network

JRC Joint Research Centre

LADM Land Administration Domain Model

ICM Integrated coastal management

ICZM Integrated Coastal Zone Management

IMP Integrated Maritime Policy

MSP Marine spatial planning

UNCLOS United Nations Convention for Law on Seas

Appendix 5: References


45

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_6866.pdf

Abdulharis R., Djunarsjah E. and Hernandi A., (2008), Stakeholder Analysis on Implementation of Marine

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46

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“μέγα γὰρ τὸ τῆς θαλάσσης κράτος”, Περικλής

(“Great is the might of the Sea”, Pericles)